The Best Shower Trays For Upgrading Your Shower Space

The Crocket Ebro is the tray to choose if you want something other than plain white. It comes in 12 colours, including slate grey and chocolate, and Crocket offers it in 50 sizes, so you can match it to almost any enclosure or walk-in panel.

It's made from resins mixed with mineral fillers, which gives the surface a textured, granite-like finish. That texture is certified slip resistant, which matters on a wet, soapy floor.

At 30 mm tall, it sits low enough for a near-flush walk-in look. Crocket quotes a life span of up to 30 years and backs the tray with a 5 year warranty. It's also the most expensive tray in this roundup.

Elegant is better known for its shower enclosures, but its rectangular tray is a solid choice for most bathrooms. It's made in the UK and sold in 25 sizes, which covers the common enclosure widths and plenty of less usual ones.

Under the gloss acrylic surface is a reinforced fibreglass base, and the underside is flat, so it beds down evenly once the floor is level. The gloss finish resists staining, and Elegant includes a 90 mm waste trap with a large chrome plug hole.

From fitting it ourselves, the one thing we'd flag is grip. The surface has no slip resistance, so a shower mat or a textured tray like the Crocket is a better fit for anyone unsteady on their feet.

The Durovin is a low profile acrylic tray for jobs where the budget is tight. It's available in 12 standard sizes, with a dual-layer acrylic surface and an anti-limescale finish that makes wiping it down easier in hard water areas.

A waste kit is included, made to suit standard UK waste outlets, so you won't need to buy one separately. Being acrylic, it's lighter than a stone resin tray, which makes it easier to carry upstairs and manoeuvre into a tight bathroom on your own.

The trade-off is feel. Acrylic doesn't have the weight and solid, stony look of the Crocket, and it only comes in gloss white. For a rental refit or a family bathroom on a budget, that's rarely a problem.

A raised tray sits up on its own base with panels around it, which lets the waste run above the floor. That's a lifesaver on a concrete floor or where joists run the wrong way for a trap underneath. The Coram Riser has removable panels, so you can still get to the plumbing connections after it's in.

It also comes with four tiling upstands, which tuck behind the tiles on the two walls and help stop water getting behind the tray in the corner. The tray is a lightweight resin, and Coram says it can be fitted within 20 minutes.

Coram gives a 10 year watertight guarantee, extended to a lifetime guarantee when it's fitted with a matching Coram enclosure. The catch is size, as it only comes in 760 x 760 mm.

Quadrant trays have a curved front edge to match a quadrant enclosure, which takes the corner off the shower and frees up floor space. The Nordona SIMPLEX is a low, neat example at just 30 mm high, with a high gloss acrylic finish and an anti-bacterial surface.

It gives you two ways to fit it. You can glue it directly to a flat floor, or stand it on its levelling feet if the floor isn't true or you need room for the waste underneath. Nordona says it works with a range of standard quadrant enclosure formats.

There are only two sizes, so measure the corner and check your enclosure before ordering.

Elegant's quadrant tray sits alongside its rectangular one and shares the same UK manufacture. It comes in five sizes and can be fitted left or right-handed, so you can choose which way round it goes in your corner.

The tray is a polyurethane resin mixed with filler and capped with acrylic, and Elegant describes it as durable and lightweight. At 40 mm tall, it's a touch higher than the Nordona. The underside is flat for an even bed, and a 90 mm waste trap comes in the box.

The finish and feel aren't up to the premium stone trays, but it's a sensible choice for a family bathroom or a rental.